The Collection

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Comprised of over 40,000 textiles spanning fifty countries, the collection was assembled by renowned fashion designer and textile scholar Andrea Aranow, and for more than twenty years served as a vital source of inspiration for fashion and interior designers globally.

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The Collector

“I've always enjoyed textiles. I am entranced by their colors and patterns, love their touch and plasticity. The stories of these fabrics make them even richer.” - Andrea Aranow

Andrea Aranow has created fashion and studied textiles since the late 1960's, receiving a degree in cultural history from Brown University in 1967. She then went to New York to open Dakota Transit, a custom leather and snakeskin apparel shop in the East Village. In 1973 Aranow left New York to live in the mountains of Peru for ﬁve years, and began collecting pieces for her textile library of living cultures. From Peru, Aranow relocated her family to London, where the British Museum took interest in a 400-piece part of the collection she had compiled in South America. From London, Aranow traveled to Asia, spending years in outlying districts of China and Japan. Andrea's full story including her biography can be found here.

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